The Wilderness Tonic retreat [January 2020]

Just over a week has passed since our first Wilderness Tonic retreat of the year, and I’ve now processed it enough to try to put into words what it meant to me.

Since running the day with Katya Willems, I’ve loved not only chatting about the day with her but also reading what some of our guests have written about what it meant to them.

Eco stylist Camilla Cheung wrote beautifully on her blog about our time together. I especially liked how Camilla described the drive over to Edale from Manchester. This is one of my favourite parts of a trip to Edale, driving down from Mam Tor with views of Edale down below and Kinder just beyond. When I’m in the car and this landscape opens up, I always get a bit of an excited flutter in the knowledge that adventure and magic are just around the corner.

The magic of Kinder.

Camilla wrote: “Driving over the beautiful hilly roads, the car was chugging away to reach the highest point I have ever driven in my life and the radio bursts into Opera! I could not believe it! I put the window down, embraced the rain on my arm and hands and thought I will remember this moment forever.”

It filled my heart to read that.

There was also lovely feedback from other attendees, including Sarah Green from Another AI on Instagram.

From Helen Roscoe, featuring photos taken by her husband David Rutter (they form the studio Roscoe Rutter and it was great to see how they invested in their business through not only attending the retreat together, but working on putting what they’ve come to realise on the day into practice in their business!).

And from photographer Kenny Clayton - I particularly loved the bit where he described me and Katya as “lovely and thoughtful but also really know their s**t”!

Wilderness Tonic: style + substance

Because that’s what we’re about. We want people to feel warm, welcomed, safe and relaxed at The Wilderness Tonic retreat, but it’s not just about fuzzy feelings. There’s real substance to it all!

We put a lot of effort into planning the day so it fulfils these requirements. We ran this retreat for the first time in October last year, and the guests of the inaugural one were so generous with their really helpful feedback which we tried to implement.

Looking back at the January guests’ feedback, it’s amazing to see the correlation between what they valued most about the day and the improvements we made since October.

Some of the biggest changes we made were:

• Increase the maximum number of attendees to 10 (we had a max of 8 the first time, and one person pulled out on the day due to illness, leaving us with 7). Having more people meant more diversity and input from more creatives, particularly in the brainstorming sessions. For the next retreat, we will be having a maximum of 12 people.

The January Gang.

• A more structured workshop element at the start of the day. I was delighted to present this part of the retreat, where we focused our attention on our purpose. Finding your “why” in business is something in which I believe passionately, so it was a joy to share this with our guests - some of whom already had a purpose for their business and others who were grappling with the concept for the first time.

I promise I am leading a powerful visualisation exercise and not boring everyone to sleep…. I think! (image: Kenny Clayton photography)

• Reflection session to end the day. Katya led this to conclude our time together. She spoke about the value of journaling, both from a scientific point of view and from her personal experience. Everyone had the chance to look back at the day and write down some thoughts, actions, goals and feelings before we all went our separate ways again.

Katya leading our reflection session. (image: Kenny Clayton photography)

Walking at The Gathering

Katya and I are both big believers in the power of getting outside, walking and connecting with others in nature. It was a key consideration when we chose a venue, and we love have most of our planning meetings while out walking.

So this time, we tried a new walking route, staying mostly within the grounds of our wonderful venue, The Gathering. Following a stream gently uphill towards Kinder, the walk felt a bit more rugged and ‘wild’ than in October. I really loved this walk, which we picked specifically to accommodate wintry conditions. Between now and the next retreat, we plan to recce more routes so we have a few options to choose from if we need to vary our walking plans on the day if needed.

Pointing out the Woolpacks on the kinder plateau, where Katya and I first started thinking about the idea for a retreat while walking last May. (Image: Kenny Clayton photography)

The Wilderness Tonic in pictures

Another huge bonus of the day was that one of our guests, photographer Kenny Clayton, agreed to document the day for us. I said to Kenny we would love around 20 usable shots just to show the new elements of the day, as well as the lunch which we didn’t have photos of from the previous retreat.

However, Kenny went above and beyond and actually blew us away not only with his amazing talent, but also his generosity. Close to 200 images hit my inbox a couple of days after the retreat. They were beautiful photos: striking colours, warmth, connection personified. He really captured the essence of the day, and I loved how relaxed everyone looks in the pictures because Kenny made us feel at ease (I was largely unaware that he was snapping away!).

Next steps for The Wilderness Tonic

Yesterday Katya and I had a debrief and planning session for the future of the Wilderness Tonic retreat, and the rest of our 2020 events schedule (of course we did this while out walking!). We’ve run ten events together since meeting just over a year ago, which I find slightly mind blowing! It really has been a special joy to work with Katya and to create and deliver events that people really enjoy and get a lot from.

And not just any people, or all people, but our people. Good people who share our values and our view on the world.

I can’t wait to bring you more this year: watch this space (or follow me on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook or sign up to my newsletter).

The next two retreats will be on June 18th and October 12th, and you can book now on the early bird rate of £125. Just get in touch.